Smoke-preventing furnace



(No Model.)

W. LATHAM.

SMOKE PREVENTING FURNACE. No. 341,255. Patented May 4, 1886.

Emma 9% Wm WITNESSES:

ATTORNEYS.

UNiTED STATES,

[PATENT Orrieis,

WILLIAM LATHAM, OF SOUTH CLEVELAND, OHIO.

smoKrz pneveNrme FURNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 341,255, dated May 4, 1886.

Application filed February 13, 1886. Serial No. 131,865. (No model.) 1

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM LATHAM, of South Cleveland, in the county of Ouyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Smoke Preventing Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of the boiler and furnace, and Fig. 2 is a front view with a portion of the front wall or cas ing removed.

My invent-ion is designed to provide such a construction of furnace as shall prevent the formation of smoke by securing a perfect combustion of the fuel before the products of combustion reach the smoke-stack, thus securing a greater economy in the use of the fuel, as well as avoiding the objectionable generation .of the smoke.

It relates to that class of furnaces which employ an injector operated by steam from the boiler to carry in a blast of air to a hollow trunk in the bridge-wall, where it issues in jets and mingles with the products of combustion; and it consists in the peculiar com-V bination and arrangement of parts, whereby these i nstrumentalities are rendered practical and cflicient, as will be hereinafter fully described.

In the drawings, A represents a steam-boiler set in brick-work, and provided, as usual,with grate B, bridge-wall O, return-lines I), smoke box E, and smoke-stack F.

On the bridge-wall is placed a hollow castiron trunk, (1, upon the top of which is laid a few courses of brick, as at b. This trunk is curved or rounded on its front exposed side, and is provided with a number of horizontal slits or openings, 0. Vith the rear side of the trunk there communicates one or more (two, as shown in Fig. 2) pipes, 03, which extend horizontally to the rear outside wall of the furnace-casing and open into the air. This pipe (or pipes) extends longitudinally with the boiler through the large open space G back of the bridgewall, and between the latter and the back wall of the furnace.

From the steam-dome a steam-pipe, 6, pro vided wit-h a valve 6, runs to-the rear opening of these pipes (Z, and terminates in the mouth of the same in an injector, f. Now, when steam is turned on atthe valve 0, a current of air is carried in through the pipes (Z to the trunk, whence it issues in jets or streams in opposition to thedirection of the currents of flame from the gratethat is to say, the flames and products of combustion pass from the fire-box toward the rear beneath the boiler, while the currents of air and steam move toward the front, and, striking and intimately mingling with the fire-cun rents, cause a thorough combustion of the unconsumed particles. This action is very peculiar and very necessary to accomplish the desired end, and the effect is completed by the heating of the air-currents in pipe (I by the hot chamber G, through which they pass, which heating effect is rendered more intense by the airducts leading obliquely from the ash-pit to the rear of the bridge-wall, just behind the trunk, which serves to create an intense heat at this point. There is also a special coaction and value between the trunk blowing its air-currents in opposition to the natural passage of the fire-currents and the large open space G in the rear, for while the opposing of these currents secures the necessary intermingling of their elements the large chamber G in the rear gives space for them to circulate, expand, dissipate, and burn before passing to the return-fines, instead of moving quickly through the narrow fines and out before such effect can be accomplished.

Now, I 'do not claim, separately, the airinjeetor, nor the hollow trunk in the bridge- Wall, nor the heating of the air; but when constructed and combined as shown in my invention I accomplish a simple, practical, and efficient utilization of these principles, which secures a perfect combustion of fuel, and effectually prevents the formation of smoke, as is now demonstrated in furnaces in actual use, burning the richest or heaviest kinds of bituminous coal.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is-' The combination, with the steam-boiler and its outer casing, of the bridge-wall O, with airduots g, the hollow trunk a above, with The above specification of my invention openings 0 in its front and the brick-work I) signed by me in the presence of two subsoribabove the trunk, forming large hollow ohaming witnesses.

ber G in the rear, the pipe d, passing longi- \VILLYAM LATHAM. 5 tudinally through the latter, and the steam- "Witnesses: pipe and injeetore and f, substantially as and EDWD. W. BYRN,

for the purpose described. I CHAS. A. PETTIT. 

